What you need to know: Formula E takes over downtown Montreal

Sleek electric cars will zip around a track carved out of downtown Montreal on the July 29-30 weekend. It’s a race series for electric cars. In its third year, Formula E was created by the Fédération internationale de l’automobile, the same body that regulates Formula One. This year, Formula E races, which aim to showcase the capabilities of electric cars, took place in New York City, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Monaco, Paris, Berlin and Marrakech, Morocco. It’s the first time Montreal will host Formula E, with two races scheduled — one on Saturday, July 29, the other on Sunday, July 30. Montreal is the final stop of the season. Two-day general admission tickets cost $79, while watching both races from the “premium stands” will set you back $217.

Four shipping container stowaways seek asylum in Canada

The asylum seekers, who are from Georgia, appeared before the Immigration and Refugee Board on Monday and made their request. A publication ban was placed on details that could reveal their identities or why they came to Canada. The four men, ages 30 to 40, were suffering from dehydration when they were discovered last Thursday by a security guard who heard them calling for help. The stowaways had drilled holes in the top of the container and were waving a flag to attract attention. “They were discovered haphazardly,”said Line Guibert-Wolff, a media relations officer with the IRB. “As a security agent was passing by, he heard voices and cries for help. He opened the container and saw that their health was compromised.”

Arcade Fire performs at Kanpe Kanaval, a benefit for Haiti, in Montreal in March 2017.Vincenzo D'Alto /
Montreal Gazette

Another 375th project delivered late and provoking questions

If you’ve seen red panels displaying white shapes on lampposts high above Côte-des-Neiges Rd. in recent weeks and wondered what they are, stop and look down. Way down. The lampposts, which have been painted black, feature a second panel in grey at eye level that offers a brief history of a landmark on that spot or a feature of the centuries-old street. The lamppost signs are another of the city’s “legacy” projects for its 375th anniversary. The commemoration of Côte-des-Neiges, which city council declared a “founding route” in 2013, cost nearly $1 million. And, like the Fleuve-Montagne walkway, the project is being delivered late. The project is 95 per cent completed as of this week, city spokesperson Marie-Ève Courchesne said. A civil service report concerning the $993,754 contract that was awarded for the project last year says the work was to be finished by May 19.

Red squares mark the lampposts the city has spent nearly $1 million on for a 375th legacy project. The signs highlight lampposts with text explaining a bit of the history of CÃ´te-des-Neiges Rd.Allen McInnis /
Montreal Gazette

Quebec’s economy crawled out of the doghouse. Now, it’s a powerhouse

For decades, Quebec was seen as a laggard, trailing the rest of the country in economic growth and job creation while amassing substantial public debt. The province was a champion when it came to subsidies to business and layers of bureaucracy, but Quebecers’ standard of living was sliding. In 2012, a report by Montreal’s HEC business school warned Quebec was en route to becoming the poorest province in Confederation. But in May, the unemployment rate fell to six per cent, lower than Ontario’s and the lowest in Quebec since Statistics Canada began keeping track in 1976. In June, the rate was unchanged. Last month, Standard & Poor’s announced it was raising Quebec’s credit rating from A-plus, to AA-minus, the highest rating the province has enjoyed since 1993, and again, better than Ontario’s. The province’s economic growth exceeded projections in the first quarter of 2017, with gross domestic product increasing 1.1 per cent over the first three months, outpacing Canada as a whole. That growth meant higher tax-revenues for the provincial government, and last month Finance Minister Carlos Leitao announced Quebec had ended the 2016-17 fiscal year with a $4.5 billion surplus — nearly twice what had been forecast in his March 28 budget.

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